


Give It The Ol' College Try

by pinxynoir



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, College AU, High School AU, Humans AU, M/M, Pre-Slash, college tour au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 01:25:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2047977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinxynoir/pseuds/pinxynoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason and Nico end up on the same college tour. Sexual tension and shenanigans ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Give It The Ol' College Try

**Author's Note:**

> Loosely based on true events! I'm a tour guide at my school, and one of my favorite tours featured two gay high school boys awkwardly flirting while I answered their parents' questions and walked backwards. 
> 
> Gaybies, I have no idea what school(s) you ended up at, but I hope that the two of you fell in love. This one's for you.
> 
> P.S. If you can figure out my school from the tour, please let me know! I would love to answer a prompt of yours as a reward!
> 
> P.P.S. Parental Bianca/Thalia is my everything.
> 
> P.P.P.S. Yeah, this is lowkey a self-insert fic. Please forgive me.

“You ready, kid?” Thalia broke the comfortable silence in their rental car. No response. “I said, are you ready, kid?” She looked over to see a slumped over Jason, fogging up his window with sleepy breaths. Thalia smiled. “Aye, aye, Captain...” she whispered as she moved to turn off the radio.

It made sense--they’d taken a red eye from San Francisco and had landed in Boston at, like, six in the morning. Thalia had gotten their rental car, threw a breakfast sandwich at Jason, started pounding espresso herself, and started their drive.

Jason had been all sorts of wired for their flight, rattling off admissions statistics, college trivia, and who knows what else until conking out for maybe an hour before they landed. Thalia wanted to sleep on the flight, but she knew his chattering was a good distraction for his anxiety about flying.

Thalia sighed, pulling off the I-95 and meandering her way though tiny New England streets. After almost going the wrong way on three--unmarked, thank you very much--one way streets, she found a spot on the campus’ southern parking lot.

“Kid, kid, we gotta go,” she said, gently shaking Jason’s shoulder. He came to gradually, smiling.

“I, uh, sorry, Thal,” he said sleepily. “Wait, we’re really here?!” His body snapped up, in anticipation and excitement. “I can’t believe it!” he said, taking off his seatbelt and bolting out of the car.

Smiling, Thalia grabbed her folder lovingly labelled **JASON’S COLLEGE BULLSHIT** and got out of the car. “Alright, kid, tour starts at 9 then the info session at 10:30, then we can grab lunch, and we’ll be on the road. Sounds good?”

Jason didn’t respond, too busy staring up at the brick buildings, the multicolored trees, and honest to god _twirling_ in delight and trying to take it all in.  

She smiled, leading them to the campus center where their tour was supposed to start.

***

Bianca looked over at Nico, who was fiddling with his phone instead of looking through any of the college brochures she’d brought along for him. “Nico, do you want to at least pretend? For me?” she said, half seriously, half in jest.

Nico had always been a smart--really, incredibly smart--kid, but he’d gotten restless and irritable in the past few years. Bianca thought that helping him think about college, the future, and maybe just getting away would help him open up. So far, not quite.

“Nico, please? You might even like this school. It’s historic, it’s far enough from home, and, hey they even have an open curriculum! That’d be cool, right? Decide everything for yourself?” Bianca put on her best I’m-respecting-your-decision-to-not-engage-but-don’t-think-I-don’t-know-that-you-actually-care tone. She’d been developing the tone since becoming a middle school teacher, but Bianca had no idea how useful it’d be with her angst-ridden teenaged brother.

The boy sighed, taking the college brochure from Bianca and started to flip through. Their bus was about to stop, dropping them off at the bus depot a ten minute walk from campus. If all went as planned, they’d make the 9:00 tour, maybe stick around for the 10:30 information session, get lunch, then get back on a bus to head back to New York. This was the third college she’d taken Nico to, and she hoped this would be the one to get him excited about the process.

Their bus slid to a stop, and they got off. Bianca started walking east toward campus, and Nico followed suit.

***

After getting checked in at the campus center by a nice woman with a thick, New England accent, Jason and Thalia were led outside to a group of four tour guides. They joined a group of about 70 other people visiting the college for a tour.

Jason kept looking around, at the buildings, at the huge, lush, beautiful green--creatively called the Main Green, according to his visitor’s map--that they were standing on, and even at the other people visiting. He kept looking over at a cute, short guy with wavy black hair and olive skin. Next to him was a slightly taller, slightly older female version who Jason figured was his sister.

“Hello, hello, hello, everybody!” The tallest of the tour guides began. “My name’s Naomi, and I’ll be one of your tour guides today!” She was a beautiful black woman whose face was framed by big, black plastic glasses. Her curly black hair was held back by a thick, multicolored headscarf. “Each of us will introduce ourselves, and then feel free to choose whose tour you’ll go on. We all give the same tour, but each of us can speak better about different parts of campus life. Sound good?”

Everyone in the crowd nodded and smiled. “Ok, well, I’m Naomi and I’m a sophomore from Houston, Texas...” Naomi finished her introduction and told folks interested in taking her tour to go to the funny statue over there after the other introductions. Two more guides introduced themselves and gave meeting places.

Finally, the last--and shortest--tour guide stepped forward. “Hey everyone, my name’s Eddie, and I’m a junior studying anthropology.” Eddie was a short, Asian guy with deep brown skin. His hair was choppy, spiked up and lazily pointing out in all directions. He wore a shirt with the school’s crest, a shield with four books with a rising sun on top.

“I have a focus on biological and archaeological anthropology, so if you’re interested in old things, dead things, Classics, any of that sort of stuff, follow me! I’ll start over at that tree,” he finished pointing to a big tree next to a bench.

Jason tugged on Thalia’s arm: “That one, Thal! He said he knew stuff about Classics! How lucky is that?” Thalia smiled, and the two headed off toward the big tree.

***

Nico had waited until the majority of the crowd had split off before picking which tour to take. The smallest group was following the last guide who introduced himself, so he and Bianca headed toward the big tree.

The group who had decided to follow their guide--”You can call me Eddie! Or Ed! Or Hey-Look-Out-You’re-About-To-Hit-Something!”--had maybe twelve people in it. Including the giant, blond probable-football player who’d been staring at him earlier. Of course.

“Alright, two warnings,” their tour guide began,”One: I am very, very short. If you can’t hear me, let me know! I’m a tiny man with a tiny voice box that’s close to the ground, but you still deserve to get all of your questions answered. Two: I joked about this earlier, but, if you see me about to walk into something--a statue, another person, into traffic--PLEASE let me know! The backward walking life of a tour guide is a dangerous one--really, I actually fell down a flight of stairs on my first tour two years ago.”

Nervous laughter erupted from maybe four people in the tour group. “Alright, does anyone have any questions? No? Alright, let’s get started then! We were founded in 1764...”

Nico really wasn’t on this tour to hear random history tidbits. Really, he was only here to make Bianca happy. For some reason, she’d been crusading his college search. Nico was confused but not angry about the attention. Still, he didn’t need to hear about how the university moved once before ending up here or how George Washington’s troops accidentally blew up part of that building. Huh. Maybe that _was_ kinda cool.

Nico also had to admit that the campus was gorgeous in that Ivy League way--red brick, greenery creeping onto everything, the trees themselves exploding into natural rainbows in the mid-Fall.

“Alright, enough history tidbits. Does anybody have any questions? Anybody?”

The big blond raised his hand “Uh, yeah, actually. You mentioned Classics? Is the department near here?” Classics? Nico had assumed that the blond would be more of the econ or business type.

“It is, yeah! Right over there,” the tour guide said, gesturing toward a building a ways across the street. “I can talk to you more about Classics in a bit or one-on-one after--sound good?”

The big blond nodded and smiled.

“Ok, cool. Alright, so who’s been to the bookstore already...” the tour guide began. He then went off on a spiel about the big black gates--which could be found on _everything_ in the bookstore, from shirts to _mint tins_ \--they were near and how the gates were only opened twice per year--in the fall to let the freshman class in and at graduation to let the senior class out.

Nico smiled to himself--of course a place that didn’t even have its own curriculum would have silly traditions like that. The tour guide went on, telling a story about how a tuba player once got stuck on the gates, then how one of the libraries across the way had crazy rare books, like an original Shakespeare folio and even a book bound in human skin.

He even joked about how the other library across the way was jokingly called ‘the John’--as in, “I feel terrible about this paper, so I’m going to have to sit in the John all night tonight...”--for awhile. The tour guide earned some pity laughs.

As the tour went on and more people asked questions, the group ended up back at the center of the Main Green. The tour guide pointed to the campus center: ”...and that’s home to our almost 400 clubs. Including everything from club sports to religious groups to cultural and ethnic clubs to our LGBT groups to...”

He wouldn’t admit it, but Nico blushed _hard_ when their tour guide nonchalantly mentioned LGBT stuff on campus. The big blond guy also looked taken aback by the casual LGBT mention, but the Punk Rock Girl with him elbowed him, whispered something, and made him giggle.

The group made their way across the green and into a building with a huge, empty room inside. When the tour guide told them to turn around and look up, Nico saw an _enormous_ pipe organ embedded into the wall. The tour group spread out, mixing around somewhat as folks wandered a bit to get a better look or take photos.

“It’s actually one of the world’s largest Hutchings-Votey pipe organs in the world,” Eddie the tour guide said smiling.

“I’m, uh, kinda into _big organs_ ,” the blond whispered to Nico. Nico could only blink at him. “Oh my _GOD_ , I am so sorry that was really rude and inappropriate and also a really terrible pun, sorry.” The guy zipped away before Nico could properly react.

Nico scanned the tiny crowd for the guy and saw him blushing and stammering at Punk Rock Girl, who he’d been with for most of the tour. ‘Really?’ Nico thought, ‘this guy’s playing truth or dare with his girlfriend or something?’

Nico shook it off, and walked over to Bianca.

He really needed this tour to be over.

***

Jason was _mortified_. Thalia had seen him looking over at the cute guy with the wavy hair a couple times on the tour. Then, of course, she dared him to strike up a conversation. One terrible penis pun later, Jason was thoroughly embarrassed and could barely pay attention to the tour at his freakin’ _dream school_.

He purposefully kept his gaze from drifting toward Cute-Guy-I-Harassed and did his best to listen intently to the tour guide. Eddie went on about how the unique curriculum worked here, and a few of the more eager looking parents asked really, really specific questions as their kids looked embarrassed, overwhelmed, or apathetic.

The group left the building and exited onto another green, and Jason led Thalia to the front of the group as he noticed Cute Guy and his sister had gravitated toward the back.

The tour went on and the guide kept answering questions between spiels about different academic programs, theatre, and sports. Just as he was beginning a spiel about STEM programming, he quickly fell backward--Jason leapt forward and grabbed the guide’s arm before he fell down the small flight stairs in their path.

“Holy hell, thank you!” The guide said, laughing. “And you,” he continued, pointing to Jason, “I have no control over the admissions process, but I hope you get in!” The group laughed and continued on, through a massive stone arch.

“So, this here is Soldier’s Arch--it was built in memorial to folks affiliated with the university who died during World War I. It’s since become a focal point for memorials on campus. Also, it has a fun tradition: if you kiss someone under this arch at midnight, you will get married. Not necessarily to that person--it’s college, what can I tell you?--but you will get married.”

Thalia giggled and lightly punched Jason in the arm: “You should kiss your new boyfriend under here, huh?” she mocked. Jason’s face fumed a soft red.

The group continued on, the guide blazing through the STEM spiel he attempted before almost falling. “Any future scientists here? No? Good, thank god. Let’s keep moving!” he ended, leading the group through a building to see the university’s newest lecture hall.

After that, the tour guide led the group to the northern part of campus. The majority of freshman lived up north, and nervous parents asked questions about how housing worked and what the meal plan was like.

When all of the questions had been answered, the tour guide led to group to a small set of stairs. A college crest was carved into the biggest step. “Don’t step on the seal! Tradition is if you step on the seal, you won’t graduate. But you can cure the curse with a midnight kiss under Soldier’s Arch,” Eddie finished.

The tour guide then went on to tell the group why he chose this university: turns out he was also from California, and he found an intellectual, social, and emotional home this far from where he grew up and where all his family was from. He couldn't turn down an opportunity like this school. Jason smiled at that.

“Alright, all, thank you so, so much with bearing with me for an hour. If you’re coming to the info session, please follow me. Otherwise, I can give you directions, lunch recommendations, or anything else you may need,” the tour guide finished as people clapped lightly.

Jason hung back as folks got directions or recommendations, waiting to ask about Classics, LGBT stuff, and lunch. He noticed that almost the entire group had eventually dissipated--except, of course, for Cute Guy and sister. Jason gulped.

***

Bianca got a phone call and stepped a few yards away, saying she’d only be a few minutes. Nico headed toward their tour guide, accidentally bumping into Blond Guy. Of course.

“Y-you can go ahead and ask first,” Blond Guy said, stepping back a bit to stand with his girlfriend.

“No, go for it,” Nico responded.

“No, uh, really. Go first. I, uh, ‘cuzza earlier...” he trailed off, breaking into a _goofy-_ -but very cute--smile.

Nico rolled his eyes, and approached their tour guide and quickly mumbled, “So, uh, wha-what’sgaylifeherelike?”

The tour guide smiled. “It’s better than high school,” he said, laughing. “Well, it was better for me, anyway.” Nico smiled a careful smile and nodded. Bianca got off the phone and started approaching. Eddie continued, “Hey, if you don’t want to talk about this stuff with your sister, here,” he said, handing a little business card to Nico. “It has my work email, and we can talk more there, cool?” Nico slipped the card into his pocket.

“What’re we talking about? Oh, by the way, thank you so much for the tour!”

Nico’s face froze. He hadn’t talked to Bianca about _things_ yet, and he really, really, really didn’t need to out himself to her on a goddamn college tour.

“Just about if the info session is worth it--the answer is yes. And good lunch around here--which there is plenty of,” Eddie said, saving him.

Bianca smiled, and took out a pen to jot down the restaurants their tour guide listed off.

Blond Guy then approached asking, “Hey, is it alright if I butt in?” Everyone nodded. “Cool! So I was wondering about Classics and what LGBT life is like here and if there’re any good places to get lunch? I’m starving.” The tour guide laughed, saying they’d walk and talk. He led them back toward the campus center, where the information session would be starting soon.

Nico didn’t listen much--he didn’t want to do Classics, didn’t want to seem too interested about LGBT stuff with Bianca around, and he already had a list of places to eat lunch at--but got butterflies in his stomach when he realized that Blond Guy was very interested about hearing about being queer on campus.

_Oh._

***

Jason had thanked the tour guide profusely for the tour and answering his questions. The guy only smiled, handed him a business card with his email, and wished him luck with his college search.

After that, Jason pulled Thalia to the side of the room opposite from where Cute Guy and sister sat. He’d embarrassed himself enough for one day and really didn’t need to do it again.

He did his best to listen to what the admission officer was saying, but he noticed that Thalia was scribbling notes in her **JASON’S COLLEGE BULLSHIT** folder, too. Jason’s face felt warm, feeling so, so grateful for Thalia stepping in and stepping up as his guardian after everything that had happened with their parents.

She eventually caught him staring at her notes and smiled at him warmly. As the info session ended, he got up with Thalia, and the pair headed out of the building toward the street with the recommended restaurants. “Thai?” he asked. Thalia nodded.

***

Bianca had gotten an enormous plate of beef pad see ew, and he settled on shrimp pad thai. About three quarters through the information session, Nico had started getting anxious because of the size of the crowd. Bianca motioned for him to head out, and he did, happily. They’d decided on the Thai place from the list of recommendations that they’d gotten from Eddie.

The food was greasy, delicious, and cheap as hell. Nico was feeling good and satisfied and maybe like opening up to Bianca when _Blond Guy and Punk Rock Girlfriend walked in_. They were seated a few tables away, within eyeshot. He didn’t think Blond Guy noticed, until they locked eyes as Blond Guy was handing his menu back to a waitress.

Both of their faces went a shockingly bright red shockingly fast. Bianca’s eyebrow quirked when she saw her brother apparently transforming into a tomato. “Nico, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m, uh, fine.” Each word was punctuated by a noticeable pause.

“Are you sure? It kind of seems like you’re, I dunno, dying?”

Nico’s face grew even redder as she heard steps approaching from behind her. Bianca turned her head just in time to see the big blond guy who was also on their tour approaching.

“Um,” blondie eloquently began, “my name’s Jason and I think you’re really cute and my sister is forcing me to do this oh my god and here take this,” he ranted while handing over a napkin, “it, uh, has my number and email and oh my god, you’re way cuter up close and ok, I’m going to leave have a good day and I, uh, hope you get in?” Jason slapped both hands onto his face before quickly running back to his seat.

Nico heard cackling explode from Punk Rock Girlfr--Sister as Jason made his hasty retreat. Eyes enormous and face still glowing red, he turned his head toward Bianca, whose shoulders were bouncing in an attempt to stifle her own older-sisterly cackling.

“Ni-Nico--oh my god my baby brother just got hit on, fuck--are, are you ok? Do,” she paused a second to let out a small laugh, “do you need to talk about something?”

He stammered, “I, uh, I’m gonna apply here.”


End file.
